2-970-206 - /Heritage Images

The Peace Commemoration: the Fireworks, sketched from the Mall, in St. James's Park, 1856. Londoners celebrate the end of the Crimean War. '...the effect was something like that which would be produced by a chemical manufactory in flames...the air above the park and for some distance around was luminous with the blaze of suns, stars, comets, and streamers - the flight of rockets, shells, and Roman candles - the descent of meteors, parachutes, and showers of pearl, silver, and golden rain. Shining serpents and fireflies chased each other through a sea of light, resting on a bed of upturned human faces...The eye was dazzled with the intensity of the light, the brilliancy of the colours...while the ear in turn was assailed by the whizzing of wheels and revolving stars, the bursting of shells, and the discharge of mines and batteries'. From "Illustrated London News", 1856.